No business cards = no bueno. If you forget your business cards, you might as well have turned your car around and gone home. What is the point of networking and meeting people if they have no way to contact you later? Even more unfortunate, is if you do not have them period. I am not sure what is worse – not having biz cards or having something terribly designed to hand out. I find it amusing when people ask me for my cards to hand out to other people and proceed to scribble their contact information on the back. Yes, I printed those up just for you to use, but if you want to pass out my contact info, knock yourself out. I always find it amusing when people cannot “afford” to have business cards when there are so many free services out there. Keep in mind, you pay for what you get. Anyway, in all of these cases, you might as well of stayed home.
Don’t talk with food in your mouth. Seriously. This is table manners 101 and I can’t believe I am actually writing this for that matter. The process is simple. Take a small bite. Swallow. Answer the question. In that order. If you proceed to do engage in this bad habit, I am sure whomever you are speaking with is going to be so grossed out they are not going to be listening to what you are saying anyway. My advice? Pick up an etiquette book or avoid events with food.
Be kind and courteous to everyone – no matter what. Yes, you do run into obnoxious people at events and want to roll your eyes. Believe me, I sat by one of these individuals at an event yesterday, but chatted away. This also applies to the food servers. If someone spills a drink on you, don’t have a public conniption fit. Accidents happen. People in general do not like to work with rude people.
Do not bad mouth your competition. People are not stupid and they will undoubtedly hear about your mouthing off. You can build better business relationships by out-servicing and out-performing your competition.
